Chapter 238 — Fear
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 4 of 6
Though Xiao Bai's cultivation was profound, placed as she was in such an eerie atmosphere as this Hall of the Nether King now had, there was no way her mood could be good. And each day she could not help but see someone nearby go mad and die; the horror of such a place of madness was beyond all words.
In truth, with her thousand years of cultivation, Xiao Bai had already vaguely sensed that behind this vast and seemingly magnificent cavern in the mountain's belly there lay a most strange and bloodthirsty power, swelling without cease. Especially each time she witnessed someone die in madness, that peculiar reek of blood grew ever more intense.
Three days ago, when she had first arrived at Mount Huqi and met the first disciple of the Hall, Old Li, dying in madness, she had by chance discovered a mysterious figure hidden in a certain corner, from whose body this blood-reek poured forth most strongly of all. But when she went after him, the mysterious figure had already vanished, and from that day to this had not appeared again.
And at this very moment, Xiao Bai felt her patience was nearly worn away!
In the stone chamber Xiao Bai sat alone. The thick stone walls around her, though likewise seamed with cracks that had not been there before—a sight to make the heart start—could still shut out most of the noise and enclose within this chamber a quiet that now seemed precious beyond measure. Yet Xiao Bai's face showed nothing of quiet; on the contrary, the anger in it grew stronger by the moment. What had happened before her eyes these past days had wholly overturned her former impression of the Nether King. His disciples were mired in terror, and yet the Hall Master had simply vanished from sight—he would not even come out to say a word to steady men's hearts, let alone take any measure to deal with the situation.
This was a thing unheard of. Xiao Bai had even wondered whether some great event had befallen the Hall of the Nether King during her absence—whether some powerful figure had secretly done away with the Nether King, and this was the chaos that followed. Otherwise, with the Nether King's former grand strategy and great ability, how could such a state of things have come about? Yet turn it over as she might, Xiao Bai always felt that a figure as formidable as the Nether King could never have been betrayed and murdered by his own subordinates. And she still cherished the bond of those years when her sister Xiao Chi had been the Nether King's wedded wife; she did not wish to make things too strained, and so could only wait patiently—and that wait had stretched to three days and three nights.
"Pa!"
Xiao Bai's face was dark as water. She struck the bed beside her, then rose and walked straight to the door of the stone chamber. Three days—at last she could bear it no longer, and was resolved to go and see the Nether King and have it out with him. Otherwise she would simply leave this place; in such an eerie spot as this, she truly did not wish to stay a single day longer.
Just as she was about to reach the stone door, Xiaobai's slender brows suddenly knit. She seemed to sense something and halted. Sure enough, a moment later a stir came from beyond the stone door, and then a respectful voice called in: "Is Miss Xiaobai there?"
Xiaobai stepped forward and opened the stone door. Outside the chamber stood a disciple of the Hades Sect, around twenty, still quite young in appearance, though the skin around his eyes was somewhat dark and a weariness he could not hide lingered on his face. One could well imagine that he, too, had been plagued by the eerie happenings all around.
Seeing Xiaobai standing there, the Hades Sect disciple's expression grew all the more deferential. That Xiaobai shared an extraordinary bond with both the Hades Sect's Sect Master, Hades, and its Vice Sect Master, Ming Li, was known to everyone in the sect, and so they naturally treated her with the utmost respect.